South Side Sox Player of the Week (April 4-11): Gavin Sheets

Somebody had to be

Gavin Sheets is our latest Player of the Week.

Unfortunately, when talking about any honors for a now 2-14 team, a player of the week is going to be granted not just with plaudits, but irony or jokes.

So, of course, the first reaction is that Gavin Sheets was our Player of the Weeks because someone had to be.

And, after all, he’s a one-dimensional player who doesn’t have a defensive position — at least until the White Sox bite down hard and send Andrew Vaughn down to Charlotte. And with no plausible right fielder (as Dominic Fletcher and Kevin Pillar now have to shift over to center field to fill the injury gap created by Luis Robert Jr.), manager Pedro Grifol says that Sheets will again see time way out there this season, dodging gopher holes and trying his best.

But through it all — including a start of the season where he had no defined role on the team — Sheets is thriving. He is tied for the hitting lead in WAR (yeah, 0.4, stop laughing) as well as on-base (.391), slugging (.541), OPS (.932), OPS+ (168), doubles (four), homers (two, tied), RBIs (eight) and total bases (20). He’s even managed a sea-level 0.0 defensive WAR at first base while Vaughn is burbling under at -0.2.

Backhanded compliment or not, Gavin, enjoy the honors. And thank you for being the one player in the lineup that doesn’t want to make us quit watching baseball entirely.

---

2024 South Side Sox Players of the Week

Eloy Jiménez (February 23-March 2)
Eloy Jiménez (March 3-11)
Chuckie Robinson (March 12-19)
Michael Soroka (March 20-27)
Garrett Crochet (March 28-April 3)
Gavin Sheets (April 4-11)

---

Top 10 MVP Standings

Garrett Crochet (40.9)
Michael Soroka (24.5)
Gavin Sheets (21.1)
Michael Kopech (20.0)
Eloy Jiménez (17.9)
Korey Lee (17.7)
Chris Flexen (16.0)
Paul DeJong (10.2)
Jonathan Cannon (9.7)
Erick Fedde (8.0)

Top 10 Cold Cat Standings

Dominic Fletcher (-19.4)
Pedro Grifol (-18.9)
Luis Robert Jr. (-16.7)
Andrew Benintendi (-16.0)
Touki Toussaint (-14.7)
Yoán Moncada (-14.2)
Andrew Vaughn (-11.0)
Dominic Leone (-10.4)
Pretty Much the Entire White Sox Team (-7.5)
Chris Getz (-7.4)

Out of nowhere — actually, out of hovering around zero all of 2024 — Andrew Benintendi rode a -13.3 votes week to hit Cold Cats with a bullet, almost leading the race outright. On the other hand, Sheets’ POTW performance jumped him from No. 10 among MVPs to third.

---

Writer Standings

A loss tonight means that perhaps for the first time ever, every one of our writers covering the team with recaps will be worse than .500. Di is precariously perched at 1-1 heading into Tuesday’s action. And at the bottom of the standings, if not for a single spring tie, Hannah could have started the season with seven straight losses.

---

If you’re interested in seeing more of Mitch’s work, or if you’d like to purchase original drawings or prints, contact him via Twitter (@soxsketcher), Instagram (@southsidesharpie), or by e-mail at southsidesharpie@gmail.com. Thanks for supporting local artists!

---